320 Some Account of the Mer-de-Glace. 



what is termed watery fusion. By a strong heat all salts lose their water 

 of crystallization. Some salts, in crystallizing, enclose mechanically within 

 their texture particles of water j by the expansion of which, when heated, 

 the salt is burst with a crackling noise into smaller fragments ; this occur- 

 rence is termed decrepitation. KoTTTra. 



SOME ACCOUNT OF THE MER-DE-GLACE. 



August, 1831. 



With respect to my own observations upon the Mer-de-Glace, 



they were necessarily somewhat meagre, as I paid but a short visit to 

 Chamouni j I will therefore be better than my word, and add to the ac- 

 count of what I have observed for myself, that which I have learned from 

 De Saussure, an author a little out of date in England, but whom, never- 

 theless, every Alpine traveller will do well to study attentively. 



With Geneva you are acquainted : I do not remember any thing tolerably 

 new there, excepting the wire bridges over the fossfe, and Davy's monument 

 in the Protestant burying-ground. The monument is plain and in very 

 good taste : I copied the inscription for you, — here it is : 



Hie jacet 



Humphry Davy, 



Eques, Magnse Brittaniae Baronettus, 



Olim Regise Societ. Londin. Prseses, 



' Summus arcanorum Naturae indagator.' 



Natus Penzantiae Cornubiensum xviii Decemb. mdcclxxviii. 



Obiit Genevje Helvetorum xxix Mai mdcccxxix. 



Having sent our heavy baggage round by the lake to meet us at Mar- 

 tigny, we got under weigh at five o'clock in the morning for Chamouni. 

 We went as far as St. Martin in an open carriage, which our party there 



exchanged for a char-au-banc ; however, H y and I preferred walking, 



which we did, with the exception of a mile or two, all the rest of the way ; 

 and a very fine walk we had : we arrived at Chamouni just after dark. 



Next morning by day-break we ascended the Montague- Vert, where we 

 will, if you please, pause while 1 give you an aper^u of what we came to 

 see. You must know that parallel to the central chain of the Alps, and 

 running, therefore, east and west, or nearly so, are certain valleys, of which 

 Chamouni is a principal one ; which valleys open laterally to receive cer- 

 tain smaller valleys or, as we should say, combes, which descend from the 

 summits of the great Alpine chain. In these combes lie the principal 

 glaciers, extending from their gradual commencement near the summit of 

 the mountains, to their sudden termination on the edge of the principal 

 valley, a distance, in some cases, of eight or ten leagues. 



The sides of the hollow occupied by the Mer-de-Glace are excessively 

 high and steep; and its embouchure, a little to tlie east of the village of 

 Chamouni, is flanked by two mountains loftier than the rest, upon the 



